Atherton >> The Monte Vista Christian School girls volleyball team had to leave a little uncharted territory for the next generation.
The Mustangs plunged deeper into the season than any other team in any sport in school history just by taking the floor Saturday for the California Interscholastic Federation’s NorCal Division IV championship. Indeed, they were the first MVC volleyball team in 19 years — longer than any of them have been alive — to reach the NorCal playoffs. They did it by winning the program’s first Central Coast Section title since 1997 and just its third overall.
Buoyed by that experience, MVC hoped to go all the way to the school’s first state championship match. But completing the path will be a task for another team. With so much on the line, the No. 2-seeded Mustangs came down with a case of big-stage fright and fell to top-seeded Menlo School, 25-9, 25-14, 28-26.
“I felt like we were the underdog story to come this far,” senior outside Sjea Anderson said. She added, “We carved a way where other teams can possibly follow.”
Of any team in the state, the Knights (24-8) don’t need to be told how hard it is to complete the path to the state playoffs, and more specifically to the state title.
Menlo, which exited in the first round of the CCS Open Division playoffs, has been to the state championship game five times but has never broken through to win a title. For four straight seasons, from 1999-2003, the Knights were thwarted by Marymount of Los Angeles. In 2013, it was San Diego’s Francis Parker that denied Menlo the title. No team has been denied more times, though Tri-City Christian of Vista also has the dubious honor of going 0-5.
The Knights will play the winner of Saturday night’s SoCal championship match between Loma Linda Academy, which hails from near San Bernardino, and Point Loma of San Diego. Like MVC, neither has reached the state championship before.
Knights senior middle Mia Vandermeer said she has already been pressured by her sister, who was on the 2013 team, to do what she couldn’t.
“We’re definitely not done,” Vandermeer said. “Now is the time to push and give it our all.”
Vandermeer played a key role in stopping MVC (33-6) in the NorCal title match. She tallied 12 of the Knights’ 17 blocks and also hit 10 kills, which tied her for the team high. On from the first whistle, she kept Anderson — the MVP of the Monterey Bay League’s Gabilan Division — from finding her rhythm. But it wasn’t just Anderson, who finished with just seven kills and 13 digs, who struggled. The entire team didn’t look itself from the start.
The Mustangs usually have a buoyancy about them, an almost carefree approach that seems to deflect any negative fallout from poorly executed plays or early deficits. On Saturday, they appeared somber and a little unsure.
“I think we came into the game kind of timid. I think we knew we were the lower seed and may have gotten scared,” junior outside Mattea Romo said. “Nothing was working.”
Those insecurities came, understandably, from playing at an unfamiliar level and outside of the confines of their Watsonville gym, where they had played their previous three NorCal matches, beating Kelseyville, Lick-Wilmerding and Sacred Heart Prep. It also came from playing a Menlo team every bit as good as billed. Selina Xu finished with 10 kills and 15 assists for the Knights, while senior Jessica Houghton had 18 digs and junior lefty right-sider Ashley Dreyer made five blocks.
The Mustangs finally shook off their trepidation by the third game, but by then the damage had been done.
“They did tremendous, really fantastic, in the CCS and NorCal championships,” said first-year Knights coach Marco Paglialunga, who coached the Italian national team to two world championships and who had watched hours of film on the Mustangs. “They went over the expectations of everyone. They really played as a team.”
The good news for MVC is that it might not have to wait another generation to take that next step. The Mustangs will graduate Anderson and setter Greysen Gilroy, who put up 23 assists. However, they were led in kills by freshman middle Allie Tillery, who tallied nine plus five blocks, and sophomore middle Shelby Anderson, who hit eight. Sophomore Carson Gilroy added 12 digs.
Coach Kiley Woods said she thinks the Mustangs could win a NorCal title within the next few seasons.
“I think it’s definitely doable,” she said. “It’s going to be hard. It was hard to do in the first place. But, it’s doable.”
Contact Julie Jag at 831-706-3257.
